Special Students Impact Gig Harbor's Peninsula High School

A handful of teens decide to make a difference in a fellow student's life.

From left, Cameron Roncevich, Amanda Meuschke, David Gulbranson and Meaghan Thomas were spotted rolling pennies recently for a fundraiser to help a fellow student, and to help find a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Peninsula High School students helped Buys, and her students, raise some $500 worth of pennies.

PSD paraeducator Angie Wehmeier, helps Jacob Sumpter with a poster made to help with his fundraising efforts.

GIG HARBOR - Jenny Buys has a knack of opening doors, tugging heart strings, making stuff happen, and giving all the credit to everyone else.

Recently, this humble Peninsula High School special education teacher witnessed some goodness fall upon a group of students that, she said, rarely get recognized.

Last month, Buys showed her math students a movie titled, "Darius Goes West," a documentary about a young man living with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD).

After experiencing this courageous story, a handful of her students felt drawn to make a difference themselves by helping a fellow student that also has the highly debilitating disease.

They decided to start a penny drive to support 16-year-old Jacob Sumpter — a wheelchair-bound sophomore — by raising funds for research through the progressive, Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD) organization, and at the same time, help him to qualify and compete with his caregivers in the June 27 Seattle Rock ‘n' Roll Marathon.

Buys said her students scrambled to make this happen, and then formulated a plan to reach the student body.

Cameron Roncevich said that he and his classmates were highly-impacted by the movie.

"It hit close to home, because of having a kid here at school with this disease, and the fact that eventually, if there's not a cure for it, he will die.

"It broke our hearts knowing that he has it, and can't do most of the stuff we take for granted. That really made us want to do the fundraiser and make a difference," Roncevich added.

After getting approval from the school principal, Buys said her students started researching DMD, and then came up with a presentation to give to other classes.

She said that it was a "very cool thing" to see her kids get so motivated about doing something different.

"I teach Special Ed math, and typically these kids don't have a place where they can really shine," Buys said.

Because of their disability area — sometimes in written language, math, and reading, she said, it's often hard for them to get in front of other kids and be vulnerable.

"But these kids not only said that they were willing to do it, but they were shining in front of other students, and came out winners themselves while impacting the whole school at the same time," she added.

Buys' students raised some $500 to help find a cure and get Sumpter into the race.

Sumpter will be participating in the half marathon (13.1 miles) version of the race, with his paraeducators, Angie Wehmeier and Linda Youngchild — who also raised funds for the event.

"Because I work so closely with Jacob, Linda and I both decided that we wanted to do it to support him," Wehmeier said.

The two had to raise $800 each, but Wehmeier said that the car washes and other activities were fun, and that the rewards were worth every penny.

All of the proceeds (80 cents on the dollar) are headed to the PPMD to find a cure for DMD.

The Duchenne strain is one of nine types of muscular dystrophy — all being genetic, degenerative diseases — primarily affecting the voluntary muscles in males.

Marshall Heinemann, 15, was in class when Buys' students came in with a bottle for the penny drive and their heartfelt pitch to help.

"They asked us to donate pennies so this kid could get a couple of years back to live.

"I thought that it was pretty important, and couple of days later, I went through my piggy bank and got a bunch of pennies," Heinemann, said.

Buys is happy for her students, and for Jacob Sumpter.

"Knowing that Jacob is going to change the lives of other people that have this is huge. It's been a powerful thing for Jacob, which is something that I'm super proud of in this whole experience," Buys said.

"I thought it was pretty cool of my friends to want to help me raise money for the marathon. I want to thank everybody for their hard work, it really makes me feel good," Sumpter, said.

Buys said that Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy affects many people in the Gig Harbor community, and most will die early because of this awful disease.

"There's been so many breakthroughs in genetic research right now for neuromuscular diseases, that a cure could be found in our generation.

"So, the more money we raise now, the more likely that it's going to happen in a quicker time," Buys added.